


Caught

by agent85



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, FZZT Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-01-19
Packaged: 2018-03-08 05:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3197309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent85/pseuds/agent85
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When they pull her into the boat, and she peels off her soaked jumper and towels off, it won't get out of her head. Fitz, with the device and parachute in hand. Would he have done it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught

She wakes up, and she's no longer falling. She's sinking. Or is she swimming? 

"Don't worry," Ward says, "I've got you. They'll be here soon to fish us out."

It takes her a second to realize that she is, in fact, cradled in Ward's arms, and that they are both floating in the ocean. The pulse from the Chitari virus must have simply knocked her out, instead of frying her brain. She tries to calculate their exact location and determines that it must be somewhere off the coast of Morocco. The water is freezing, but she's alive. That's more than she ever hoped.

"Thank you, Agent Ward. I can't believe you jumped out of a plane . . ."

She stops when she sees the way his face hardens, and she's afraid that she said something wrong.

"I stopped Fitz."

She pauses, staring at him. "What?"

Ward couldn't have stopped Fitz; she had taken care of that already. She shudders at the thought of the way the fire extinguisher thudded against the back of his head, at the memory of his struggle to open the door that she locked. Fitz is fine, she tells herself. She remembers his scream, and the way she smiled at him while the wind whipped behind her. He would have stopped her, if she hadn't stopped him first. But she did. Fitz is fine, or he will be. Once he sees that she's safe, maybe he'll find a way to forgive her.

"Fitz was trying to get a parachute on; I had to take it away. And the device." He nods at the anti-serum delivery system, now floating like debris from a wreck. "He told me it worked."

Her stomach turns at the thought of Fitz falling through the sky, and all of a sudden, she's angry at him, even though she knows it's hypocritical. Hadn't she just forced him to watch her fall to her death? But she had been trying to save them. Save  _him_. When he screamed at her, she had smiled because he was safe. Why couldn't he have just stayed in the lab?

"Fitz?" It's the only thing she can say right now, and she can't look Ward in the eye, but she can see his chin dip when he nods.

Her mind goes back to that moment when she realized, no,  _they_  realized that the key to the cure would come from the Chitari helmet, and then moments later, he was bursting through those doors, helmet in hand. Fitz, who was terrified of something as benign as a urine sample, had gone into a quarantine zone head first. 

"Don't worry," Ward says, and she has to remind herself that he is still there with her. "He wouldn't have jumped. He couldn't even get the straps on."

She looks into Ward's eyes and remembers the way that Fitz looked at her when he told her that they were going to fix this together. She remembers the way he looked at her when she said that she wanted to take the offer to join Coulson's team, and how his expression shifted when she reminded him that the offer was for both of them. He had followed her onto the plane. Would he have followed her off it?

She's about to respond to Ward, but he looks behind her, and when she follows his gaze, she sees a boat coming toward them with SHIELD insignia. She doesn't remember what she was going to say.

When they pull her into the boat, and she peels off her soaked jumper and towels off, it won't get out of her head. Fitz, with the device and parachute in hand. Would he have done it?

It takes a while for May to land the plane, and she starts to notice how quickly she's recovered from the symptoms of the virus. Now, her arms are merely pasty, rather than ghostly. She can't imagine how terrible she must have looked before.

Or can she? Because she saw the looks that Coulson and Skye gave her from the other side of the glass. Ward could barely look at her. 

But Fitz could. And he was there, even when it turned from bad to worse. He would be here right now, waiting for someone to take them both back to the BUS, if he could. He wouldn't have let her die while he had the cure.

She straightens, and when she runs a hand through her hair, she learns that it's already dry.

No, Fitz would have jumped. For her. Just like she had jumped for him. Poor, stupid Fitz, who has no idea how to even work a parachute, would have gone after her. They would have had to fish two bodies out of the ocean, because he wouldn't leave her behind. He's her best friend.

She realizes that a tear is forming, and she brushes it away. Suddenly, she can't wait to see him.

But he's not waiting for her when she and Ward board the plane. Only Coulson is there, and he doesn't say a word before escorting them to his office and giving her a slap on the wrist. He isn't there when they leave, though Skye is.

She finds him in his bunk, cuddling with a pillow. He doesn't see her in the door frame.

"I'm sorry," she says, and he meets her eyes to give her a sad smile. "Can I come in?"

He nods, and she sits beside him on the bed, feeling this tension between him that she's never felt before. Like she's trapped between two states of being.

"I didn't get to you in time," he finally says.

"What?"

He meets her eyes, then pulls away.

"The anti-serum worked, and you didn't know. I should have gotten to you in time. I'm sorry."

She takes a breath in and out.

"You didn't get to me in time because I locked you in the lab. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I just, I had this countdown in my head and I couldn't wait."

He chuckles. "Yeah, I know."

"How did you figure it out?"

She asks this because she wants to know, but she also wants to get Fitz talking. That, she knows, will get him out of this mood faster than anything. And when he's done, she'll tell him all of the things that are bubbling up inside her, ready to burst. She'll tell him how much it meant to her, that he, Fitz the pessimist, tried to cheer her up when she was about to break. That he stood beside her until the end. That he tried to follow her beyond the end. 

That she would have followed him, too.

After all, they aren't just lab partners. They're best friends.

And isn't that what best friends do?


End file.
